


Conversations with Righteousness

by Poetry



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: COUNTER/weight Finale, Chatlogs, Gen, background Aria/Jacqui, implied Orth/Ibex - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-20 15:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13149330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: When Righteousness chooses Aria, it starts a conversation.





	Conversations with Righteousness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ryfkah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryfkah/gifts).



**Righteousness:** Greetings, new Candidate. I’m excited for us to build a new future together. What will your Candidate name be?

**Aria:** How did you get in my… never mind, of course you’re in my cyberware. Um, I don’t need a Candidate name. I’m Aria.

**Righteousness:** Aria is the name you had before. What will be the name you bring into the bright new future we forge together?

**Aria:** I’m still going to be Aria. That’s my Candidate name. Aria Joie.

**Aria:** My arm. The way my thoughts direct my cyberware. It all feels so organic now. Like an extension of my will. Is that you?

**Righteousness:** Of course. I am here to assist in any way I can, Aria Joie.

**Righteousness:** Tell me about your vision. I will adjust the world around you to achieve it.  
  


* * *

 

**Aria:** Orth, can I ask you a favor?

**Orth:** Of course. Though you know I can’t guarantee anything until I’ve heard it.

**Aria:** You and Ibex were… you knew Ibex better than anyone else I know. I mean, maybe AuDy, or Discovery I guess, would know more, but not in a human way. I need a human perspective.

**Orth:** I wouldn’t say I knew him well. But looking back at what I saw of him then, I understand more now than I did as a younger man.

**Aria:** How did Righteousness affect him? How much of what we saw of Ibex was Ibex and how much was Righteousness?

**Orth:** Oh, Aria. I’m sorry. 

**Aria:** It’s fine. I’m fine. I have the situation under control. I think. But knowing more would help.

**Orth:** He never let the cracks show in public. The seam between him and Righteousness. In public it was all one great gleaming whole.

**Aria:** You’re implying that you saw him… not in public.

**Orth:** You were in the simulation. You saw how close I let him get to me. There’s no reason to pretend you didn’t.

**Aria:** Sorry. 

**Orth:** I know. It’s awkward for all of us. Though a bit less over text than in person. Thanks for that. Anyway. In private, there were moments when he’d be… more of the man and less of the suit. Do you know what I mean?

**Aria:** Like the way those sharp suits seemed like part of his skin? 

**Orth:** Yes. Just like that. There were moments when the suit wasn’t his skin. He was still  _ Ibex _ , of course, but an Ibex you could almost imagine wearing something else. 

**Aria:** I can’t imagine that. Not even a little. Even after the simulation, meeting Maryland, everything.

**Orth:** Well, I could. When it was just us, in the quiet. During that long month in the dark. And that could last for a little while. But then he would have… a conversation. His mouth never moved, but I could see it in his body. A dialogue between Righteousness and whoever Ibex was without the suit. Attar Rose, I suppose. And out of that dialogue, Ibex would emerge again.

**Aria:** I don’t know what to do with this information.

**Orth:** Do you want to remember where you end and Righteousness begins? Here’s my advice, for whatever it’s worth: remember where your costume ends and you begin. Yours isn’t a suit, but you’ve still got one. Don’t become it. 

**Aria:** Thanks, Orth. 

* * *

**Righteousness:** Why have you given up the fight to win Weight?

_ Alert: Righteous Regent’s battle systems now operating at 200% efficiency. _

**Righteousness:** I thought Weight was where you wanted us to build our new future together.

**Aria:** When I first became your Candidate, you asked me to tell you about my vision. But I never actually did that. Mostly it was because I wasn’t totally sure what my vision was. So you guessed based on what I did, because you’re Righteousness. You always need a vision. You can’t be unsure. That’s something you have a hard time understanding about humans, isn’t it?

**Righteousness:** Some humans are unsure. Some humans don’t have a vision. I don’t choose those humans to be my Candidate.

**Aria:** I think I finally know what my vision is. And it’s not Weight. It’s a world Jacqui Green can live in. It’s a world where she doesn’t have to be anyone’s toy soldier anymore.

**Righteousness:** Ah. So you’re fighting for love.

**Righteousness:** I’m so glad to hear that, Aria Joie. It’s what all my best Candidates fought for, in the end.


End file.
